Two former Parramatta Eels players are accused of harbouring semi-automatic weapons and possessing more than half-a-million dollars in cash after dramatic arrests in Sydney's Centennial Park yesterday.

Turnbull fans flames of union firefight

When Malcolm Turnbull was in Melbourne to talk to Country Fire Authority volunteers at a rally on June 4, Liberal pollster Mark Textor posted a photograph of the scene with the tweet: "Community volunteers 1 v thugs 0".

The July 2 federal election was triggered by the twice defeat in the Senate of coalition government industrial laws.

On Monday, having largely ignored the issue for the first half of the campaign, the prime minister launched a twin-barrelled attack on unions - referring to the Victorian dispute as well as the defeated legislation to restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

Turnbull says the 60,000 volunteers of Victoria's CFA are about to be "subordinated to the firefighters' union, at the union's demand".

"That's their price they are exacting from (Labor) Premier (Daniel) Andrews," he told reporters.

Related Articles

Drawing a line between the local dispute and the federal election, he said unions in the construction industry were "operating beyond the law".

Unions were involved in corruption, dishonesty and malfeasance, he said, while adding as much as 30 per cent to the cost of major construction projects.

Shorten, having led the Australian Workers Union before entering parliament, was "lined up with the interests of the militant unions", the prime minister added for good measure.

For his part, the Labor leader - having spent most of his working life negotiating workplace deals - is not too concerned about any fallout from the firefighters' pay and conditions talks, which have been going on for more than three years.

"I would expect Mr Andrews and the CFA will get the balance right - they have got fantastic volunteers and volunteer brigades, they have also got some professional full-time firefighters.

"I've got no doubt there's a workable solution here."

As for the ABCC issue, Labor continues to dismiss the double-dissolution trigger as a stunt and the question of union corruption has barely been asked of the opposition over the first half of the campaign.

It is understood internal Labor research is showing the trigger for the election is not resonating anywhere in the electorate.

Labor workplace spokesman Brendan O'Connor describes the assumption that union corruption would be a major issue as the coalition's "great error".

He's also well aware the savage Liberal campaign in 2014 linking Andrews with industrial militancy fell flat with voters.

Despite union membership declining in recent decades, an Essential poll taken in October found 62 per cent of voters (or 71 per cent when it came to part-time workers) believed unions were "important for working people".

Both John Howard and Tony Abbott fell foul of over-reach when it came to fighting unions, rather than seeking accord between them and business.

It may be a more effective election strategy for Turnbull to stick with his "jobs and growth" message.